Nick Cave on his “love” for the audience and the power of ‘Into My Arms’ 

Nick Cave has explained how he can feel “love” for his live audience, and explained why he thinks the song ‘Into My Arms’ is so impactful.

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The Bad Seeds frontman shared the update with fans on his own website, The Red Hand Files, and it came as a fan reached out to him and asked why he claims to “love” the people in the audience at his live shows.

The question, he explained, came as he is currently on his run of North American tour dates with the band, and the response was written while he was on a flight to a show in Chicago.

“When I tell the audience that I love them, the sentiment is entirely true. I feel an emotional transaction with the crowd that is powerful and profoundly intimate,” he wrote. “I stand before you all – strangers – witnessing you both individually and collectively, and sense an unbounded love. This love is true. It is not symbolic, metaphorical, or platitudinous.”

He continued, explaining how he recognises the intense emotions of the people looking back at him, and how it is in the renditions of his 1997 song ‘Into My Arms’ that he finds the response from the crowd particularly powerful.

“I see before me a group of human beings, precarious and vulnerable, granted a brief time on this earth, each filled with a shocking potential for beauty and terror, good and evil, and with the extraordinary capacity to give and receive love,” he added. “At that moment, love is the appropriate response.”

He continued: “When the crowd joins me in singing ‘Into My Arms’, it feels like a mutual embrace, an act of conciliation, of comfort, and fellowship – an acknowledgement of our common fate, that we are, in that moment, both living and dying in concert – and it’s hard to keep my fucking shit together, to be honest.’

The song remains one of Cave’s most famous tracks, and was shared as part of his 10th studio album ‘The Boatman’s Call’ back in 1997. Cave has previously explained that he wrote with the song while in rehab.

Over the years, it has become a staple of his live shows and remained one of the favourites among fans. Cave famously played the song at the funeral of the INXS singer Michael Hutchence, although he requested that the performance was not recorded.

His ongoing run of live shows kicked off earlier this month, and are the first US tour dates from The Bad Seeds since 2018. The band were previously set to make their way to the US back in 2020 but had to cancel their tour due to the COVID pandemic.

So far, the shows have made stops in Boston, Brooklyn, Washington and more, and have included some of the first live renditions of ‘Skeleton Tree’ in seven years, as well as tracks from his acclaimed 2024 album ‘Wild God’.

Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood is playing with Nick Cave and co. for the live shows, after it was announced last year that Martyn Casey wouldn’t be able to join due to illness. Previously, Greenwood played with Cave live on his recent solo tours, as well as several dates of the ‘Carnage’ tour with Warren Ellis. Greenwood also contributed parts to the band’s new album, ‘Wild God’, too.

The first of two Chicago shows was played last night (April 28), and the second will be held tonight. From there, further stops include shows in Minneapolis, Chicago, San Francisco and more. Visit here for remaining tickets.

Before the release of ‘Wild God’ and subsequent live shows, Cave spoke to NME about his outlook on life, and opened up about how he thinks social media contributes towards the pessimistic outlook of younger generations.

“I think social media is a huge problem and is having a huge demoralising effect on society. Young people are losing faith in the world in general and what the world has to offer them. That’s a major problem,” he said. Check out the full interview here.

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